Rainy Night
by incandescens
Summary: A rainy night, a busy inn, and far too many people at cross-purposes. Complete.
1. Chapter One

Chapter One   
  
Rain soaked them all. It ran down the trunk of the tree under which they were trying to shelter, and dripped unexpectedly from tiny branches directly over wherever they were standing. It aimed itself between the few leaves -- autumn had come early this year, and wind and storm with it, and the trees were all bark and branches by now -- and struck with intent in huge cold drops. The wind, for its part, veered inconstantly between north and west, with occasional pauses in the east and south, so that it wasn't even possible to take shelter behind a particular tree trunk or feature of the landscape.  
  
"It's still better than being back at the castle," Doku muttered to himself. Unfortunately, each second made him think less and less of the castle's inhabitants, and more and more of the sheer physical pleasures of hot water and dry clothing. The skirts of his robe clung stickily to his legs, soaked and freezing cold.  
  
Beside him, Kougaiji made a noise that was very close to a sneeze, then stared bitterly into the driving darkness of storm and forest around them. Water slicked his bare chest and glistened on his collars and bangles. In the beginning, he had pointed out that the use of magic might alert the Sanzou-ikkou, who were reputed to be in the area, and that throwing up some sort of barrier against the storm was less important than seizing the sutra. Doku rather suspected that it had become a matter of pride by now not to use magic to keep them dry. Besides, it wasn't as if they could get much wetter.  
  
Yaone came leaping down from the branch above them. Her hair was slicked to her head and matted against her back, and her usually sleek gloves and jacket clung in wrinkles against her arms and body, soggy with accumulated water. "Kougaiji-sama," she reported, formal as ever, "there's a light to the west, approximately half a mile away on the edge of the forest."  
  
Doku tried to remember the maps of the area which they'd checked earlier. "That's an inn, isn't it?"  
  
"With a bathhouse," Yaone added wistfully. "But it's a human one. Given the current climate . . ."  
  
"And there was no sign of the Sanzou-ikkou?" Kougaiji questioned.  
  
Yaone shook her head. "No signs of them or their jeep, Kougaiji-sama, and they usually drive with lights if they're driving by night."  
  
_It's much easier to ignore the cold than to ignore the rain_, Doku reflected miserably, and wished that the Sanzou-ikkou were somewhere up a snowy mountain. Not only would it be a damn sight easier to spot them against all the snow, it wouldn't involve having freezing water in a steady stream down the back of his neck.  
  
Kougaiji frowned, clearly deep in internal debate. Rain sheeted against him, dripping down his elegantly pointed ears and outlining his high cheekbones, streaming down his leather jacket and dripping from the ends of his hair. "And you're quite sure that Lirin is safe for the moment?" he asked irrelevantly.  
  
"Oh yes, Kougaiji-sama," Yaone nodded. "She's off with that diplomatic party visiting the Lion Demon King to the south."  
  
"Yes, that was the alliance I wanted broken . . . mnh." Kougaiji reached behind him, took his hair between his hands, and wrung it out. Water squelched down and puddled on the ground. "Since the Sanzou-ikkou is supposed to be somewhere around here, it would be pointless for us to return home yet. We'll take shelter in that inn."  
  
Yaone gasped. "But Kougaiji-sama, they're human . . ."  
  
"We've all got limiters," Kougaiji interrupted her. "We will, purely as humans, book rooms, order food and wine, and have hot baths." He paused. "Humans do have decent hot baths, I hope?"  
  
"Oh, they do, Kougaiji-sama," Yaone assured him quickly. "Not as good as the ones back at the castle, of course, but they can manage hot water and dry towels. And steam. And heat." Her eyes were wide and dreamy. "And dry robes, and hot wine, and . . ."  
  
"We're on our way," Doku said quickly before Kougaiji could even consider changing his mind. "Half a mile to the west, right, Yaone? Let's go."  
  
---  
  
Doku had taken charge of booking them all rooms at the inn, as Kougaiji wasn't carrying any money on him -- after all, why should a youkai prince require such a thing? -- and Yaone had pointed out that his physical presence and forthright manner would undoubtedly get them better rooms. He rather suspected that translated into "you can bully the desk clerk better than I can," but since he agreed entirely on that point, he'd taken her supplies of money to add to his own, and gone out to do battle on behalf of his prince.  
  
"Three people," he told the bored-looking desk clerk. Clearly the man wasn't overworked on a night like this; customers simply couldn't reach the inn to stay there. "Me and my cousins. Two men, one woman. We need baths -- got any rooms left with private bathrooms?"  
  
The clerk suppressed a yawn, made an effort, and checked his clearly near-empty register. "Sorry, but I can do you rooms on the floor directly above this place's bathrooms, so you won't have far to walk. How many rooms do you need?"  
  
"Three," Doku said, making an inner note to rumple his sheets in the morning so that the bed looked used.  
  
"Mm hm." The clerk scribbled. "Name of?"  
  
"Wong," Doku said hastily.  
  
"Riight." The clerk wrote it down three times -- underneath, as Doku could see with a bit of a squint, four entries of "Lee". "Well, we'll certainly be glad to give you our very best hospitality tonight, sir." He glanced towards Kougaiji and Yaone, who were standing together near the door, and then made play of obviously looking away from them. "We're extremely discreet."  
  
Doku leaned over the desk towards the clerk. "Good. I'd hate to think you weren't." He let his shoulders bunch. _See the muscle. Fear the muscle._ "We're just after a quiet night."  
  
"Oh, you'll have that," the clerk said hastily. "No problems, sir. None at all. Please go right upstairs, here are the keys to your rooms." He handed over three carved keys with wooden tags attached, hand shaking slightly. "The bathrooms are directly below, there are dry robes in your bedrooms, unless you'd like food first?"  
  
Doku assessed priorities. "Hot baths first," he said firmly. "Send a couple of jugs of wine up. We'll order some food later."  
  
"Of course, sir," the desk clerk said. "We do hope that you have a peaceful, relaxing night."  
  
---

Fanfic Page 


	2. Chapter Two

CHAPTER TWO  
  
Gojou let himself sink deeper into the hot water with a sigh of blissful relief. One inch further and it would cover his ears, which meant not hearing any more of Gokuu's cheerful happy chatter. He closed his eyes in bliss at the prospect. After all, he only actually needed his nose above the surface of the water, for the whole breathing thing, and the rest could take care of itself as he slipped quietly away and let the hot water soak into his poor tired muscles.  
  
Another imperative asserted itself. IAlcohol./I  
  
But that meant facing a cheerful Gokuu.  
  
Gojou sighed mentally. Life wasn't fair.  
  
Sanzou was in the next bathroom along. Perhaps if Gojou could bear to remove himself from this beautiful, beautiful hot water for just a minute, he could hammer on the wall and suggest that the monk took his pet monkey back.   
  
Sanzou had threatened mass murder if anyone disturbed his private soak; therefore, Gokuu was in here pestering poor tired Gojou. He luxuriated in self-pity. And Hakkai wasn't here to distract the kid because Hakkai was up in his bedroom checking on Jiipu, who'd been coughing and sneezing for the last few miles, and who had managed to convey the signs of oncoming pneumonia even as a jeep, let alone as a pitiful little dragon. Good for Hakkai. Nice helpful Hakkai. Sod Hakkai for not being here to keep Gokuu busy.  
  
The door creaked open, and Hakkai's voice said, through the steam, "Sumimasen. I hope you weren't waiting?"  
  
Gojou hoisted himself out of the water enough that he could open his mouth without drowning. "Nah. You couldn't keep me and this hot water apart if you tried." The room was thick with clouds of blessedly warm mist. He could dimly see Hakkai piling his clothes neatly by the door. "Hey! Gokuu! Hakkai could use some beer!"  
  
"Wine," Hakkai corrected him. "If it wouldn't be a bother, Gokuu . . ."  
  
"I'll have the beer, then." Gojou subsided back into the water. So hot. So beautiful. "Run, monkey boy! Run!"  
  
Gokuu pulled a robe around him, and headed out of the room, grumbling to himself, as Hakkai joined Gojou in the large tub. A few moments later, he poked his head back inside.  
  
"Got the beer?" Gojou inquired.  
  
Gokuu ran one hand through water-spiked hair. "Gojou! Hakkai! I just passed someone who looked just like Kougaiji!"  
  
Gojou was fairly sure there was something unlikely going on here. "Looked like, you say?"  
  
"Well, he was a human," Gokuu explained earnestly. "And he didn't try to attack me or anything."  
  
It was probably pure coincidence. More to the point . . . "Sanzou ought to know about this," Gojou declared, and kicked at where Hakkai's ankle should be under the water, in the hopes of prompting spontaneous agreement.  
  
"After you've got the wine," Hakkai said helpfully. Good old Hakkai, Gojou mused in a surge of sudden affection. Always had the right priorities.  
  
"You're sure?" Gokuu asked uncertainly. Maybe he was remembering the bloodcurdling threats which Sanzou had been making earlier. It was amazing how much sheer icy venom could be got into a simple promise to kill anybody who interrupted the hot bath, the beer, and the cigarettes.  
  
"Absolutely." Gojou envisaged a soak Iwithout/I Gokuu nearby. "After you've got the beer. Run, monkey boy, run!"  
  
---  
  
Kougaiji and Doku huddled just beyond the curve of the stairs which led to the bathroom corridor, where they had hastily retreated after spotting Son Gokuu. Normally outright confrontation would have been indicated, but Kougaiji had decided to withdraw for a moment and assess the situation. The numbers all seemed to add up. This looked unexpectedly promising. He luxuriated in the combination of dry bathrobe and possible sutra.  
  
"He called out to both Gojou and Hakkai," Doku affirmed softly. "I heard that too. Which means they're both in Ithat/I bathroom. And the other one along the corridor on that side is occupied as well, and since there were only the four names in the register, Ithat/I one has to be where Genjou Sanzou is."  
  
"And not even Genjou Sanzou would take one of the sutras into the bath with him," Kougaiji agreed in a whisper. "Which means they probably left it in a bedroom, and probably Genjou Sanzou's bedroom."  
  
IMost/I promising, indeed.  
  
"And . . . yup, there he goes to get the beer." Doku leaned around the corner to watch Gokuu heading for the kitchens. "Shall we find Yaone?"  
  
Kougaiji considered. "No time. The longer we leave it, the more chance of one of them going up to their rooms or running into us as Son Gokuu nearly did. Come on."  
  
Four possible rooms on the corridor. Two could be ruled out at once, as they Ididn't/I already have a reek of cigarettes penetrating through the closed door into the corridor. That left two others.  
  
Kougaiji tapped one finger against his lips, to remind Doku of the need for silence, observed his bodyguard's simple yet effective attempt to mime that he'd open the door and check the room out first, signalled an emphatic negative -- after all, they knew the Sanzou-ikkou were all safely downstairs -- and opened the door quietly, stepping into the dark room.  
  
A pair of long bare arms reached down to wrap around him, pulling him back against their owner's chest, one arm pinning his arms to his sides, the other shackled hand tracing down his bare chest and sliding under his robe. "Konzen Douji . . ." a dark voice murmured in his ear. "At last . . ."  
  
There was a pause. "You aren't Konzen Douji," the voice breathed.  
  
A loud crack, as of a stool against a distracted head. A familiar hand -- good old Doku, blessed Doku, never fully appreciated before Doku -- was dragging him out of the clasp of those shackled hands, Iwhat in the name of all the various hells, including those reserved since birth for my stepmother and Nii Jieni, is that toushin taishi doing here/I, out of the door, and down the inviting stairs.  
  
"Hide," Kougaiji gasped, regaining his breath as they reached the corridor of bathrooms. He remembered his previous encounter with Homura. Things wouldn't be improved by the fact that he and Doku were wearing limiters and effectively human. The toushin was apparently looking for someone called Konzen Douji, and on a night like this he was frankly welcome to him. Though what he was doing in Genjou Sanzou's bedroom . . . a divine visitation, perhaps? He waved a vague hand towards the bathrooms. "You go in there, I'll go in here!"  
  
Confident in his liegeman's abilities to take care of himself, he ducked into the first bathroom on the right. Small matter if that was the one which might contain Cho Hakkai and Sa Gojou. He was sublimely confident of being able to handle them.  
  
The room was full of steam. Excellent. Ignoring the surprised mutter from the bath, he dropped his robe mid-step and swung himself over the edge into the steaming water, sinking instantly to eye level.  
  
Two pairs of eyes looked at him, one set crimson, the other set green, from where their owners were also nose-deep in the water.  
  
Now what was the proper protocol in this case?  
  
---  
  
Sanzou looked up as the door crashed open. A flurry of large human came through at a rush -- Idamn it, now I'm going to have to get my gun wet or drop my cigarette/I -- discarded one of the inn's standard robes, and joined him and Gokuu in the tub with a crashing tidal wave of displaced water.  
  
ICould I not have even one evening free of idiots?/I he mused irritatedly. IAstonishing resemblance to Dokugakuji, henchthug to Kougaiji, check. Somewhat obvious limiter-type large bracelet on wrist, check. Air of profound embarrassment at current situation, check. Stupid comment from monkey . . ./I  
  
"Sanzou," Gokuu asked loudly, "is that Dokugakuji?"  
  
"Of course it isn't," he snapped. ICheck./I  
  
"No way," the newcomer agreed, submerging hastily.  
  
"He couldn't be," Sanzou pointed out firmly.   
  
"Absolutely not," the definitely-not-Dokugakuji stated.  
  
"But, Sanzou . . ."  
  
Sanzou's eyes met those of the definitely-not-Dokugakuji. ITonight someone else can take care of the problems. All the problems./I "Shut up, bakazaru," he recommended.  
  
---  
  
Yaone settled blissfully into her own tub, her very own tub, her nice private quiet steam-filled bathroom with a bath full to Ioverflowing/I with boiling hot water just for her. She let herself settle back into the water, bracing her shoulders against the side of the bath, back turned defiantly to the door, Igo away outside world/I, and stretched her arms out on either side. A bundled towel held her hair off her face and allowed her to simply savour the delightful sensation of heat and relaxation. The world contained nothing but blinding steam and hot water and the drumming of the rain outside. Yes. Outside. That was the important bit. It was outside and she was inside.  
  
She didn't even care that Dokugakuji would get to scrub Kougaiji-sama's back.  
  
---  
  
Kougaiji heard the creak of the opening door, and sank beneath the surface of the water like a lotus at dusk.  
  
There was a pause. "Marshal?" Homura's voice was audible even through the water that filled his ears. "General?" Another silence, as of a hunter drawing the coverts and finding his prey absent. "Later," the dark voice promised, and the door closed with another creak.  
  
Slowly Kougaiji let his head rise above the steaming surface. IIf forced to take to your bath in a hurry due to political inconvenience/I, came the distant echo of his tutors, Ialways comport yourself in such a way as to achieve the respect and gratitude of those in the bath with you./I  
  
"If you will allow me a moment to collect myself," he said politely to the two pairs of suspicious eyes fixed on him, "I will fetch some more alcohol."   
  
--- 


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three   
  
"You look kinda like someone I think we know," Gojou said suspiciously. Certainly the new bather was human to the casual glance, from well-manicured feet to properly rounded ears. On the other hand, it seemed the outside of coincidence that said newcomer should be wearing collars and bangles exactly like Kougaiji, not to mention a distinct similarity of looks. Dark red hair, currently soaked to near-black, dark eyes, bronzed skin, aristocratic manner of speech . . .  
  
"Really?" the newcomer asked, unconvincingly.  
  
"It's a rainy night outside," Hakkai put in blandly. He was wearing his mildest and most unassuming smile. "Anyone could turn up."  
  
"And has done," Gojou muttered. Seeing that bastard Homura loom up out of the steam like that had nearly given him a heart attack. He reassured himself with the thought that if Homura walked in on Sanzou and Gokuu like that, they'd hear the shots and shouting fast enough. "You suppose the others are here as well?" he muttered to Hakkai, sliding over in the bath so that he could put the question quietly.  
  
"Ah." Hakkai considered. "Those others --" he nodded towards the unexpected guest in their hot water, "-- or those others?" He glanced towards the door that Homura had just departed through.  
  
"Oh, hell." Gojou slumped back into the bath. "I only wanted a quiet evening," he added plaintively. "Beer, hot water, a smoke or two, no fucking maniacs with swords and guns and whips and sutra fixations . . ."  
  
---  
  
The creak of the door behind her and the sudden breath of cold air half roused Yaone from her state of delightful steam-wrapped somnolence. _Dokugakuji? Kougaiji-sama?_ The towel wrapped round her hair obstructed her peripheral vision, and she couldn't make out who it was through the ambient fog. Embarrassed that she had been so easily taken off guard, she began to push herself upright in the bath.  
  
A large hand slid possessively over her bare shoulder, and down across the base of her throat and onto her chest. "Konzen Douji," an unfamiliar male voice breathed in her ear. "At last . . ."  
  
The hand paused. Squeezed. Paused again in what might have been brain-numbed shock.   
  
Yaone exploded out of the bath in sheer fury, grabbed the bath-bucket from where she'd left it on the ground, and caught the intruder with a straight swing of the bucket to his forehead, then delivered a couple more good solid blows before he could hit the ground. _Just to be sure._ Her towel collapsed from round her hair, and she caught it against her body by reflex.  
  
The stranger lay there on the ground, mismatched eyes glazed and distant. "Konzen . . . Rinrei . . . Fields of flowers . . . Rinrei . . . Konzen . . . Fields of flowers . . ." he was muttering to himself.  
  
Yaone clasped her towel around her, and ran for it, slamming the door behind her.  
  
---  
  
"I'll . . . just get that wine," Kougaiji said, sliding quickly out of the bath. The situation was a little too awkward for his liking. Sa Gojou seemed to take the whole intrusion rather too seriously, while Cho Hakkai was developing a smooth smile and a glint to his eye which, for no particular reason, reminded Kougaiji uncomfortably of Nii Jieni.   
  
"Oh, don't hurry on our account," Cho Hakkai said blandly.   
  
_He's definitely got a devious plan in mind. I must escape._ Kougaiji looked around for his bathrobe, and saw it in a sodden lump on the floor, drenched by the tidal wave of his entry to the bath. No good there. He looked around quickly for other possible sources of clothing.   
  
Aha. The clothing left by Sa Gojou and Cho Hakkai. Damp but serviceable. He rejected the tangled pile of Sa Gojou's clothes, topped by a quite implausible pair of boxers as it was, and quickly snatched up Cho Hakkai's tunic. That would do until he could find something else. Wrapping it quickly round himself, he made for the door.  
  
"Hey, just a minute --"  
  
He shut the door and cut off Sa Gojou's voice behind him, then blinked as Yaone came running out of the opposite bathroom and tumbled into his arms.  
  
---  
  
Yaone tried to simultaneously toss her long coils of sodden hair back off her face, hold her towel around her so as to maintain some standards of decency, and run without tripping over. It was, as she recognised within two steps, a lost cause. _Why did I let my hair down? Why did I relax even for one moment? What kind of immoral impression must I have given the stranger who wandered in and saw me like that? Why couldn't Kougaiji-sama have walked in instead?_  
  
A stray neuron that wasn't preoccupied with the vital matters of towel manipulation and escape finally cross-connected the descriptions that she'd had of Homura, the _toushin taishi_ who'd so recently visited the castle -- _and why couldn't he have executed a bit of divine justice on Gyokumen while he was there?_ -- with the shackles and mismatched eyes and strong hands and deep voice of the stranger who'd attempted to take advantage of her in the bath. _Though to be fair, he seemed to be looking for someone else. Who is this Konzen Douji person anyhow?_ And . . .  
  
Yaone tripped over, and found herself in the arms of Kougaiji-sama. For some reason he was soaking wet, and wearing Cho Hakkai's tunic.  
  
_Perhaps I'm asleep in the bath and this is all a beautiful dream?_  
  
A door opened further down the passageway. There was a surprised squawk. The door closed again quickly.  
  
"Konzen Douji . . ." a voice murmured from behind her bathroom door.  
  
Kougaiji-sama heard it too. He grabbed her by the upper arm, and they both sprinted up the stairs.   
  
---  
  
Sanzou looked up as Gokuu reentered the bathroom, blinking. "Where's the beer?" he asked.  
  
"Sanzou . . ." Gokuu seemed to be in shock.   
  
"Beer," Sanzou repeated. Sometimes one had trouble getting a basic notion such as _fetch me beer_ properly seated in the monkey's brain. "Beer, remember?"  
  
Gokuu managed to marshal coherent speech. "Sanzou, I just saw Hakkai in the corridor, and he was doing things with this woman who looked like Yaone!"  
  
Sanzou put one hand over his eyes. "Things?" he enquired without much hope.  
  
"Well, she was in a towel, but it wasn't covering much, and he was holding her, and . . ."  
  
Bathwater went in all directions as the idiot who was claiming not to be Dokugakuji rose in fury. "He was what? The scumbag! The swine! The brute! Taking advantage of an innocent --"  
  
"The door's over there," Sanzou broke in. "Don't let it hit you on the way out."  
  
Absolutely-definitely-no-way-Dokugakuji gave Sanzou a freezing stare. "Like monk, like companions," he muttered, stepping out of the bath and grabbing his robe.  
  
"Hey! Is that an insult?" Gokuu demanded.  
  
"Ask the monk," positively-not-Dokugakuji snorted, and slammed the door behind him.  
  
"Sanzou," Gokuu asked plaintively, "was that . . ."  
  
"No," Sanzou bit out. "Now fetch me some beer."  
  
---  
  
One brief bout of explanations later, Kougaiji and Yaone were searching the upstairs bedrooms. With the mysterious _toushin_ pursuing the equally mysterious Konzen Douji downstairs, Kougaiji hoped to have a chance to find the damn sutra in relative peace and quiet.  
  
Unfortunately, they were on the fourth room -- obviously Cho Hakkai's -- and there was still no sign of a sutra. And Yaone was not being her usual helpful self.  
  
"Come on now," came her voice from the corner, in what Kougaiji could only term _apothecary_ mode. "Let me see your tongue. That's a _good_ dragon. Now cough for me -- good, good, without setting my hair on fire this time. Good boy. _Good_ boy. Poor thing, who's got a cold then? Don't worry, Yaone nee-san will make it all better . . ."  
  
Kougaiji deposited Cho Hakkai's tunic on the bed, or rather, the disordered remains of the bed (the search had been rather thorough) and wrapped a towel round his loins. Perhaps, he considered disconsolately, he should try sneezing and see if _that_ got her attention.  
  
---  
  
Gokuu reentered. He wasn't carrying any beer.   
  
Sanzou looked at him meaningfully, and reached for his gun.  
  
"No, really, Sanzou, it wasn't my fault," Gokuu babbled hastily, waving his hands. "I was just bringing your beer! Straight from the fridge! And then I ran into Homura who was coming out of one of the bathrooms and he looked right at me and then he took the can of beer off me and put it against his forehead and walked off down the corridor!"  
  
"Hnh." Sanzou considered. "Trust the moron to not know that you're supposed to drink it."  
  
Gokuu looked at the bath longingly. "Can I . . ."  
  
"Not till you get me another beer," Sanzou said implacably.  
  
---

Fanfic Page 


	4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four   
  
Hakkai leaned his head around the door cautiously, wary of bullets or random _toushin taishi_. Sanzou's head was a glimmer of gold in the prevalent steam, Sanzou's cigarettes perfumed the air, and Gokuu's constant splashing made a pleasant (all the more pleasant for not being in his bathroom) backdrop of running water. "Any problems, Sanzou?" he asked brightly.  
  
"No," Sanzou grunted. "Go away."  
  
"If you're sure . . ." Hakkai adjusted the towel around his waist, painfully conscious that his robe was soaked and sodden, and Kougaiji had apparently stolen his clothing. Given the circumstances -- ah, yes. Sanzou certainly wouldn't object to him borrowing a bathrobe to navigate the corridor to the kitchen and fetch some wine. Wine was a priority on this night of all nights, with the rain battering against the roof and walls like the last teardrops of a storm of weeping, bringing back memories of that night, so many nights ago, the mud, the depression, the blood . . .  
  
. . . damn. This was Sanzou's monkly robe, he realised as he closed the door behind him. Thin, damp, and smelling of cigarettes and sandalwood.  
  
On the other hand, it covered him far better than a towel.  
  
He headed for the kitchen. Wine for himself, beer for Gojou, and who knew what might result later in the evening?  
  
---  
  
"Sanzou," Gokuu said tentatively, "I think Hakkai just stole your robe."  
  
A white hand rose from the hot water, picked up the gun, levelled it.  
  
"Not that it's important," Gokuu added hastily. "At all. More beer?"  
  
---  
  
Doku found the other two in the upstairs corridor, after a certain amount of dodging around doorways and peering nervously to check who was coming. His first glance was for Kougaiji, but his second was for Yaone -- who knew what tribulations she might have suffered at Cho Hakkai's hands? Fortunately she didn't seem overly distressed. In fact, if he hadn't known better (the poor girl, to be so abused by the one person on the other side she'd actually shown some signs of liking) he'd have thought she was busy treating a patient.  
  
"Just a moment, please, Dokugakuji," Yaone requested, and ducked into her own bedroom. "I need to find something," her voice drifted out through the open doorway.  
  
"Did anything _happen_?" Doku hissed to Kougaiji, trying to keep his voice low. He didn't want to humiliate Yaone any further.  
  
Kou blinked, then shook his head. "As far as I can tell, she hit him. Several times. I don't think he had the chance to, ah . . ."  
  
Doku breathed a sigh of relief. "Good." He made a mental note to target Cho Hakkai next time they ended up fighting. The man needed a few broken legs or arms. Gojou could tangle with Yaone instead. Playing dodge-the-bombs would keep him out of trouble.  
  
"I have it!" Yaone came trotting out of her bedroom, managing to hold the towel around her in such a way as to display a minimum of naked torso flesh. Doku wondered how she did it. "Just a moment, please, Kougaiji-sama . . ."  
  
"Yaone." Kou's voice was heavy with patience. "I appreciate that you want to help the poor dumb animal --"  
  
"It'll only take a moment to give him the pill," Yaone chirped. "It's not as if I was going to worm him or give him a suppository or anything."  
  
Kou closed his mouth and swallowed, then opened it again, and said carefully, "Very well. Just be quick about it. Then we can decide what to try next."  
  
"Yes, Kougaiji-sama!"  
  
After Yaone had stepped into what was presumably Hakkai's bedroom, Doku said, "Could it be some sort of compensatory thing?" He had to raise his voice to be heard over the background noise of panicked squeaks. "I read in this psychology textbook that when people get rattled by something, they go do something else that they're really good at to make them feel better?"  
  
Kou just looked at him, with a look that inquired what he was doing spending his time reading psychology textbooks.   
  
"I mean --" Perhaps changing the subject would be a good idea. "Yaone, what are you doing in there?" he demanded.  
  
"He's going to _take_ this pill," came the answer. More panicked squeaks. "It'll be _good_ for him."  
  
Kou gnawed on a knuckle thoughtfully. "So," he said. "You were telling me about compensation?"  
  
---  
  
Hakkai wrapped Sanzou's robe around him and towelled his hair as he entered the bathroom again. Gojou was indistinguishable in the masses of steam, a smear of dark hair at the edge of the bath. For a moment he considered dropping the robe and getting back into the hot water again -- the hot, hot water . . .  
  
"Had he seen you-know-who?" Gojou asked lazily.  
  
. . . and really, it wasn't as if a rampaging Homura was _that_ serious a problem . . .  
  
"Cause if not, get your ass back in here and relax."  
  
. . . especially when weighed against a nice hot bath in good company . . .  
  
"Konzen Douji . . . at last," came a murmur from behind him. A hand reached out from the enveloping steam to knot in the fabric of his borrowed robe and pull him back against a muscular chest. "This time . . ."   
  
A pause, as the exploring hand reached the long scar which crossed his belly. "Wait. Not _again_ . . ."  
  
One of the bath-buckets rang off Homura's head with a melodious klonk, bouncing off to slam into the wall, as Gojou bank-shotted it from his semi-recumbent position in the bath. It stunned the kami for long enough that Hakkai was able to wrench himself free, trying to clasp the somewhat mangled remains of Sanzou's robe around his body.  
  
"Come on!" Gojou was out of the tub in a single elegant leap. He looked around quickly, grabbed the still-rattling bucket to cover himself, and dragged Hakkai out through the door, into the corridor.  
  
Steam wafted out behind them as they ran for the stairs.  
  
---  
  
"Well," Kougaiji said, "as to what we are to do next . . ."  
  
Running feet on the stairs made him break off mid-sentence -- and, to be frank, he wasn't quite sure what to try next, short of having Yaone dose the generally pervasive steam with narcotics and then searching the Sanzou-ikkou while they drowsed in the bath. He and Dokugakuji turned to peer nervously at the approaching runners. _At least it can't be that toushin taishi. He'd never run upstairs._  
  
Cho Hakkai and Sa Gojou burst into view. Cho Hakkai seemed to be clutching Sanzou's robe around himself, while Sa Gojou was concealing what he had to conceal with merely a wooden bath-bucket --  
  
Doku and Kougaiji reacted simultaneously, both raising their hands to shield Yaone's innocent eyes. "Yaone!" Doku growled. "Don't look at that tower of impurity over there!"  
  
"I'm an apothecary," Yaone protested, blushing as she went up on tiptoe to get a better view. "Besides, I'm sure he isn't as . . ."  
  
Cho Hakkai looked at his still-open bedroom door, then at Kougaiji and his servitors. "You wouldn't by any chance happen to have been going through our belongings, would you?" he asked politely.  
  
_Us?_ sounded unconvincing. _What belongings?_ was the sort of excuse Lirin would make. _Yes, and can I recommend a good tailor?_ would have the benefits of honesty, but might not get the best of results. "Is there anything you don't want us to find?" Kougaiji temporised.  
  
Rain hissed and rattled and thudded against the roof, and all of them looked up for a moment.  
  
"How mournful it sounds," Yaone sighed.  
  
"Like the tears of bitterness," Doku added, "whispering in our minds."  
  
"Speaking of deeper tragedy," Kougaiji murmured, "reminiscent of dark times and darker memories . . ."  
  
Cho Hakkai coughed. "Excuse me, but if I might have your attention?"  
  
A tall, caped form stepped into view at the head of the stairs. There was a mad, still-concussed light glinting in Homura's mismatched eyes. "No. _I_ will have your attention. You will not succeed in keeping Konzen Douji from me any longer!"  
  
---  
  
"Did you hear a noise from upstairs?" Gokuu asked.  
  
"No," Sanzou growled in reply.  
  
---  
  
Everyone turned to look at Homura. While he was not yet brandishing a sword, there was a less-than-subtle threat in his posture. The dazed, confused, and generally _angry_ look in his eyes was merely a corollary to the general danger of having an irritated demi-deity in the bedroom corridor and a few feet away.  
  
"Konzen Douji?" Cho Hakkai half-turned to look at Kougaiji, his hands already moving into their usual shape for moulding a ki-ball. "Have you seen a Konzen Douji?"  
  
"Not hide nor hair," Kougaiji quickly stated. He looked at Doku. "Have you?"  
  
"Wouldn't recognize him if I had," Doku quickly agreed. "Probably slipped out the back way. He sounds like a wily bugger."  
  
Homura paused a moment, then shook his head. "Do not expect to fool me so easily. Your pitiful impostures were heroic but doomed to failure. I repeat, hand him over --"  
  
"Hand him over or what?" Gojou interrupted. "I already dealt with you once already tonight. You want some more, huh?" He raised his bath-bucket and shook it threateningly. "You want some more of this, huh?"  
  
A sudden current of cold air reminded him of where he had been holding that bucket seconds before. Five pairs of eyes moved downwards.  
  
"Physiologically normal," Yaone blushed.  
  
"Yaone!" Doku gasped in horror. "Don't look!"  
  
Kougaiji shrugged one shoulder elegantly. _Really, some people had no sense of propriety._  
  
"General . . . hm." Homura looked thoughtful for a moment. "Perhaps . . ."  
  
Hakkai's ki-ball slipped from his hands, and blasted downwards into the floor.  
  
---  
  
"No, but I _did_ hear something, Sanzou!" Gokuu protested.  
  
"Shut up," Sanzou said inflexibly. "And get me another beer."  
  
With a martyred sigh, Gokuu climbed out of the bath, and walked across to fetch one of the stack of beer cans.  
  
The ceiling creaked, then fell.  
  
---  
  
Yaone was on top of the pile when the collapse finished. She was vaguely conscious of a masculine form underneath her, of a firm chest which she was reclining upon, of a darkly masculine voice murmuring incoherently, "Konzen . . . Rinrei . . . fields of flowers . . . Konzen . . . Rinrei . . . fields of flowers . . ."  
  
With a strange combination of great pleasure and slight reluctance she reached for one of the scattered ceiling timbers and knocked the dazed _toushin_ over the head with it, before scrambling off and helping Dokugakuji and Kougaiji-sama extricate themselves. Fortunately they hadn't been severely hurt. Kougaiji-sama had even, with great deftness, managed to hang onto his towel.  
  
The seven of them eventually stood around the bathtub, glaring at each other with varying degrees of pretended anonymity. Homura lay in the near-empty tub -- most of the water had been expelled during the crash-landing, and was now ankle-high on the floor -- with a dreamy, vacant smile on his unconscious face.  
  
"I think we will be going," Kougaiji-sama stated flatly. "I disapprove of the sort of clientele which this place attracts."  
  
Hakkai-san removed Sanzou's robe, which for some reason he was wearing, and passed the sodden tatters to Genjou Sanzou. "I find it not quite what one expects from an establishment of quality," he added helpfully.  
  
"Damn right we're going." The monk dangled the remains of his clothing from between his fingers. "Is it still raining out there?"  
  
Everyone tilted their heads to listen.  
  
"Ah, the rain," Yaone sighed. "Those quiet drops, falling from Heaven to Earth . . ."  
  
". . . reminders of forgotten sorrows," Dokugakuji continued, "unable to let the past rest . . ."  
  
Kougaiji-sama blinked. "That's odd. I wonder why the Sanzou-ikkou felt the need to leave quite so rapidly."  
  
---  
  
In his bedroom, Hakkai persuaded the astonishingly lively Jiipu out of his basket. "Good Jiipu. Nice Jiipu. Did you keep the sutra nice and safe for us all this time? Good boy."  
  
Jiipu blew a perky jet of flame, and fluttered around with great enthusiasm as Hakkai retrieved the sutra from the folds of blanket in his basket.  
  
"And next time," Hakkai added quietly, "a few artistic rips in Yaone-dono's towel wouldn't hurt her _or_ me."  
  
---  
  
The next day, the sun was shining brightly in a cloudless sky as two more strangers arrived at the inn. The desk clerk would have greeted them with his usual charm and efficiency, but he was too busy trying to repair the large portions of the inn which had suffered blast or steam damage the night before.  
  
"As usual," Shien commented quietly, "and as expected."  
  
Zenon shifted uncomfortably on his feet, looking down at the unconscious Homura floating in the now-refilled bathtub. "I did it last time."  
  
"You did," Shien agreed. "However, I had to do it all the time in Heaven. Your turn."  
  
Zenon grunted something that might have been unwilling assent. He reached one careful arm out, and prodded Homura with the tip of a finger. "Ey, Homura-sama . . ."  
  
Homura reached and grasped, his eyes still closed, and dragged Zenon into a firm embrace. "Konzen Douji . . . " he murmured. "Rinrei . . . fields of flowers . . . Konzen Douji . . ."  
  
"Homura-sama," Shien said mildly, "if you squeeze any harder, I believe Zenon may suffocate."  
  
"Konzen . . . fields of flowers . . ."  
  
"Indeed, he is turning an interesting shade of green."  
  
"Konzen . . ."  
  
---

Fanfic Page 


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